Here are some fun facts from a presentation (
"Chemicals: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly") that I did a few years
back on misconceptions about chemicals and perceived risk - mostly
propagated by advertising. My favorite commercial (have not seen it
in a long time) was "chemical free" make-up.

On 12/6/2012 9:50 AM, Rita Kay Calhoun wrote:

Monona,

Thank
you and Amen! The line “Where
is it written that Mother Nature loves you?” is precious.
When people start going on about ”natural” I ask them if
they want to chew on a nice piece of Poison Ivy. Hope you
don’t mind, but I’m going to post your post outside my door
for my students to read; they need as much enlightenment as
they can get.

1. MSDSs must list ingredients--no proprietary stuff. If
they won't tell you what it is, that should be a deal
breaker.

2. Natural solvents like citrus, pine, and turpentine are
all too toxic for this use. The TLV for turp is 20 ppm, the
MAK for d-limonene is 5 ppm and while pine has no air
quality standard, you only have to look at the structure to
know it is going to be a player in the same ballpark. They
also react with pollution levels of ozone in indoor
environments to raise formaldehyde levels--a phenomena also
seen above forests.

Turp and limonene are EPA-registered pesticides, so if you
need a biodegradable pesticide for occasional use, I
recommend them. But don't scrub down the school everyday
with them.

3. You probably can't avoid the glycol ethers as a class of
super grease cutters such as 2-butoxyethanol and it's
kissing kin, but warn people that the TLV for 2BTE is 20 ppm
and most other glycol ethers' TLVs are low or they are
unstudied. They are skin absorbers, and 2BTE will go right
through rubber gloves without changing their appearance.
They are probably reproductive hazards. The primary glycol
ethers are animal nuggie shrinkers which sometimes gets the
attention of your male maintenance workers.

4. Make sure they all understand the definitions of the
various nefarious "sustainability" and eco-friendly terms.

a) "no VOCs" means no volatile chemicals that react with
sunlight to create smog. All other solvents are exempt such
as acetone, ethyl and methyl acetates, and many more. And
EPA can do other weird things such as declaring 2BTE a VOC
in industrial products but not a VOC in consumer products.
Go figure. So "no VOCs" may be good for smog control, but
it has NOTHING to do with your health.

b) "Biodegradable" only means the stuff is not persistent in
the environment and breaks down into something--often
something that has not been fully studied as we found out
with the nonyl phenol ethoxylates (banned in the EU, but
still causing the alligators and fish in our lakes and
streams to grow teeny weeny penies). The old phosphate
detergents that were banned and replaced with this and other
detergents were not very toxic to people. They were just
fertilizer for algae.

c) "Natural biodegradable" products are almost always more
toxic to people than the petroleum distillate solvents they
are replacing. Biodegradable has NOTHING to do with you
health.

d) "Sustainable" means the stuff comes from a renewable
source such as a tree or plant. Where is it written that
Mother Nature loves you? There is absolutely no reason to
assume something from a plant is any safer for you than
something from plants and animals compressed under the earth
geologically such as petroleum. And this is especially true
of sustainable products that have been significantly altered
such as using soy oil to make detergents, resins, etc. The
source of the product has NOTHING to do with your health.

5. Don't accept any of the certified labels and
EPA-approvals without finding out what manufacturers legally
must provide to get these labels. You will be depressed for
weeks.

Instead, find out what chemicals are in the stuff and look
up what is known or NOT KNOWN about them. When in doubt,
get an EU SDS on that ingredient from the Internet, scroll
down to Section II, toxicology, and see if anything is
actually known about chronic or long term hazards. You'll
find most of the chemicals you will be looking up will have
no chronic data. Then apply the Precautionary Principle.

And I could go on. Helping the earth is a noble aim. I'm
all for it. But to think that using these sustainable and
biodegradable products will also be better for your health
is to be remain ignorant and a patsy for every fast talking
salesperson.

We are looking to switch to our housekeeping cleaning
chemicals to more sustainable and less hazardous
substance. Any advice or recommendation. I have been
talking to a couple of vendors but would love to get
addition feedback.

Thanks,

Wayne

-- The Washington Post's Style Invitational asked readers to
take any word
from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or
changing one letter,
and supply a new definition

The content of this page reflects the personal opinion(s) of the author(s) only, not the American Chemical Society, ILPI, Safety Emporium, or any other party. Use of any information on this page is at the reader's own risk. Unauthorized reproduction of these materials is prohibited. Send questions/comments about the archive to secretary@dchas.org.The maintenance and hosting of the DCHAS-L archive is provided through the generous support of Safety Emporium.